2022 DH Program Book by ulisan98

THE 2ND ANNUAL DOLORES SPIRIT AWARDS

2021/2022 H IGHLIGHTS

LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Sisters and Brothers,

Many valuable lessons were learned during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, but one key lesson that stands out for us at Labor Community Services is that there is nothing that we cannot overcome if we approach it together. It is that mindset that has allowed for so many families who faced food insecurities to make it through the darkest times in the Pandemic, along with keeping so many of our loved ones with us still today.

From the first food distribution to our most recent one in Maywood, we have been blessed to have incredible partners who have joined us in the effort of ensuring that families who are struggling through this Pandemic would have a sense of hope through our aide and assistance to any family in need in Los Angeles County. One of those partners was the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, better known as IATSE. Their members were amongst the hardest hit during the pandemic, as sudden work stoppages in the entertainment industry put a strain on an industry that has survived numerous strikes and trend changes within our communities. Having brothers like Thom Davis helping lead the union allowed us to partner up and provided services to thousands of their members, bringing hope into homes who most needed them.

It is in that same spirit that we were able to partner up with Laborers 300, which has allowed us to host monthly food distributions in Mission Hills. This monthly tradition has become an anchor of support for many Angelenos would who would have gone without food for their families. This was made possible thanks to the leadership of Sergio Rascón, Business Manager for Laborers Local 300. For over 28 years, Brother Sergio has been a champion within the Labor Movement, fighting to ensure that the voice of all union workers is heard and respected. This year, we honor Brother Sergio and thank him for being a staunch ally to Labor Community Services.

When it comes to leading the fight for workers rights, our sisters and brothers from the Bakers Union at Jon Donaire Desserts stand out as the example of what happens when we stand together united in solidarity, supporting one another and making sure we succeed. Despite intimidation from the company and management staff, the unrelenting members from Bakers Local 37 persevered through the endless days and nights (even through the holidays into the New Year!) demanding that they be given the raise, benefits and improved work conditions they deserved. They are our heroes and this year, we celebrate their achievement together!

Lastly, the fight against food insecurities requires a broad partnership with partners who can help us with bringing food to our families, and do so with a deep commitment to service in the name of others to help others. This year, we honor Food Forward, an organization whose mission is to ensure that no food goes to waste and that no family have to go without a meal. Their efforts have helped thousands and thousands of families in Southern California and to Native American tribes in Arizona and New Mexico.

We look at the year ahead with great optimism as we are thankful for your support in our fight to ensure that our families in organized labor and in our communities have hope when they need it most.

Sincerely,

Armando Olivas Executive Director Labor Community Services

EVENT PROGRAM

Welcome Reception

Music By DJ Sizzle

Musical Performance by Mariachi Las Colibrí

Welcome & Special Recognition

Armando Olivas & Sandra Hernandez

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo

Congressmember Brad Sherman

Remarks: Larry Brown

Awards Presentation:

Thom Davis, IATSE

Bakers Workers, Bakers Union Local 37

Sergio Rascón, Laborers Local 300

Food Forward

Speakers:

United States Senator Alex Padilla

Dolores Huerta

LA Fed President Ron Herrera

Musical Performance by Cold Duck

OUR EVENT HOSTS

area. Mr. Olivas served as the Federation’s Community Services Director and was on staff at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

During his first assignment to LCS, he led the LA County Federation’s crisis response efforts assisting union and community members impacted by the Northridge earth-quake of 1994. In 2002, he was appointed as the Western Regional Director in the Labor Participation Department of United Way World Wide responsible for all community service offices in the western United States.

When the current LA County Federation president took office in 2019, he said his first priority was to ensure adequate capacity of Labor Community Services to meet the needs of union members and their families in time of need. Armando was appointed as the Executive Director and returned to where he started: Los Angeles Federation of Labor. Since then, Labor Community Services has distributed food and services to more than 600,000 individuals in response to the Corona virus pandemic.

Mr. Olivas is frequently requested to speak on the AFL-CIO Community Services Program and the Labor / United Way’s partnership. He was invited to Tokyo, Japan to provide a keynote address to personnel in the United States Armed Forces.

SANDRA HERNANDEZ

Sandra has been a union member for over 35 years with CSEA, the California School Employees Association. She started out as a rank-and-file member, she has also served as the chief shop steward and for 16 years, served as the president of CSEA Chapter 477 at Rio Hon-do College.

Sandra is a current Vice President and Executive Board Member of the LA County Federation of Labor and a Board Member of Labor Community Services. She is also the Personnel Commissioner at Hacienda La Puente Unified School District’s Personnel Com-mission.

Sandra is a tireless activist, present at most labor actions, Letter Carriers’ Food Drive team captain since 2010 and has been a consistent volunteer for LCS food distributions throughout Los Angeles County.

In 2015, Sandra was the recipient of the Miguel Contreras Leadership Award, has been twice awarded CSEA Activist of the Year Award and has been key in bringing CSEA chapters into affiliation with the LA County Federation of Labor.

EVENT SPEAKERS

ALEX PADILLA

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Senator Alex Padilla is the proud son of immigrants from Mexico, his father a short-order cook and his mother a housekeeper. Padilla attended Los Angeles public schools and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating from MIT, Padilla was elected to the Los Angeles City Council where he served as the youngest Council President in Los Angeles history and provided citywide leadership at critical times, including serving as acting Mayor during the tragedy of September 11, 2001. He was elected to the State Senate in 2006 to represent the more than 1.1 million people in the San Fernando Valley. As a State Senator, Padilla passed more than 70 bills, including landmark legislation to combat climate change, and was named as one of Sacramento’s "most effective legislators."

Padilla served as California’s first Latino Secretary of State starting on January 5, 2015 and was reelected in 2018, receiving the most votes of any Latino elected official in the United States. As Secretary of State, Padilla worked to make our elections more accessible and inclusive, while fighting to protect the integrity of our voting systems.

As California's Junior U.S. Senator, Padilla serves as Chair-man of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizen-ship, and Border Safety. He also serves as a member of the Senate Committees on Budget, Environment and Public Works, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Judiciary, and Rules.

Senator Padilla lives in the San Fernando Valley with his wife Angela and their three sons: Roman, Alex and Diego.

EVENT SPEAKERS

RON HERRERA

LOS ANGELES COUNTY FEDERATION OF LABOR PRESIDENT

Ron Herrera was a member of the Teamsters Union for over 46 years. Ron’s loyalty and dedication to the Labor Movement was a result of his Father’s example. Ron’s father was a staunch Union man who worked the Ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland as a member of the Longshoremen’s Union. Ron’s Father taught him a deep and abiding respect for worker rights, social justice, and the critical role of Labor Unions in advancing these interests.

Ron started his Union career in 1975 as a UPS package car driver. Ron was one of a handful of Latino drivers employed by UPS at the time. Motivated by the teachings and legacy of his Father, Ron quickly volunteered to help the Union in his workplace.

During his 24 years as a rank and file Teamster member, Ron represented his fellow members as a UPS Shop Steward. In 2000, Ron was hired as a Teamsters Local 396 Business Representative and in 2001 he became the President of Local 396. In 2002, Ron was elected to the Local 396 Principal Officer position.

Ron was subsequently elected as an International Brotherhood of Teamsters Executive Board Trustee in 2011. In 2015, Ron was appointed to fill an open Teamsters Western Region Vice President position on the General Executive Board. His appointment was then confirmed by the membership in the 2016 International election.

In 2019, Ron was elected President of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The LA Fed is the second largest labor council in the United States. It has over 300 affiliates that represent over 800,000 working men and women in the Los Angeles County area.

Ron recently retired from the Teamsters Union, having served as the International Director of the Teamsters Port Division, Chairman of the UPS/Teamsters Article 43 National Committee, Executive Assistant to the Teamsters National Hispanic Caucus, and Teamsters Joint Council 42 Recording Secretary.

Ron believes in increasing the diversity in the leadership within the labor movement and has dedicated his career to bettering the lives of workers through organizing. He has led many successful organizing campaigns and has successfully passed groundbreaking legislation at the city and state level that has helped sanitation workers to become members of the Teamsters Union and provide a better life for their families.

EVENT SPEAKERS

DOLORES HUERTA CO-FOUNDER, UNITED FARM WORKERS

Co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement.

Born on April 10, 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta was the second of three children of Alicia and Juan Fernandez, a farm worker and min-er who became a state legislator in 1938. Her parents divorced when Huerta was three years old, and her mother moved to Stockton, California with her children. Alicia’s community activism and compassion-ate treatment of workers greatly influenced her daughter.

Discrimination also helped shape Huerta. A schoolteacher, prejudiced against Hispanics, accused Huerta of cheating because her papers were too wellwritten. In 1945 at the end of World War II, white men brutally beat her brother for wearing a Zoot-Suit, a popular Latino fashion.

In 1955 Huerta began her career as an activist when she co-founded the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO), which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics. She also founded the Agricultural Workers Association. Through a CSO associate, Huerta met activist César Chávez, with whom she shared an interest in organizing farm workers. In 1962, Huerta and Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), the predecessor of the United Farm Workers’ Union (UFW), which formed three year later. Huerta served as UFW vice president until 1999.

Despite ethnic and gender bias, Huerta helped organize the 1965 Delano strike of 5,000 grape workers and was the lead negotiator in the workers’ contract that followed. Throughout her work with the UFW, Huerta organized workers, negotiated contracts, advocated for safer working conditions including the elimination of harmful pesticides. She also fought for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers. Huerta was the driving force behind the nationwide table grape boycotts in the late 1960s that led to a successful union contract by 1970.

In 1973, Huerta led another consumer boycott of grapes that resulted in the ground-breaking California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which allowed farm workers to form unions and bargain for better wages and conditions.

The recipient of many honors, Huerta received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. As of 2015, she was a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, and the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

EVENT HONOREES

THOM DAVIS

2ND INTERNATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, IATSE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Thomas Davis was elected to his position in July 2001 in Chicago.

An IATSE member since 1977, Davis has been an active member of Local 80, initially serving as an Executive Board of Local 80 in 1984. He served as the union’s Vice President from 1992 through 1998. During that time, Davis was also hired as an organizer for the Local. In 1998, he was elected as Business Representative for Local 80.

Davis has been active in unions since he was a teen, working with the AFL-CIO youth group “Front Lash.” In the early 1990’s Davis became involved with the United Farm Workers in their struggle to achieve the basics of human dignity. In 1982, Davis also served as a delegate for the California State Labor Federation.

On November 3, 2021, after working for several months to negotiate a new fair contract, over 100 workers (most who were Latina women) at Jon Donaire Desserts in Santa Fe Springs, CA went on strike. Despite constant harassment by management and the use of the local police to intimidate the strikers, the union members held strong. They celebrated Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and even New Years Day on the picket line. They fought for what they believed that they deserved - a contract that provided them a small raise, a respectable workplace environment and protected their benefits. Their fight led to a successful contract agreement which is now having impacts nationally on negotiations taking place between other Locals and Jon Donaire Desserts. We're proud of the striking workers whose determination helped fuel our souls

EVENT HONOREES

SERGIO RASCÓN

BUSINESS MANAGER, LABORERS LOCAL 300

INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD

Sergio Rascón, Business Manager of Local 300 in Los Angeles, was elected Vice President of LIUNA with the retirement of Mike Quevedo. Rascón became an agent of Local 300 in 1984. Local 300 represents more than 7,000 union Laborers in Los Angeles County. In 1989, he was elected to the Executive Board and has served as the Assistant Business Manager and President. In 1995, he was elected Business Manager and he was reelected to the same post in 1998 and 2001. Under Sergio’s direction, Local 300 raised more than $300,000 in scholarship funding for the children of Southern California union members and has become involved in more political races than in any time in its prior history, supporting progressive political campaigns and actions in its members' interest.

FOOD FORWARD COMMUNITY PARTNER AWARD

1 in 9 Californians lacks adequate access to food. That’s nearly 4 million people. At the same time, 40% of food in the United States, or 80 billion pounds, is wasted every year.

Food Forward creates a sustainable solution to both these problems. Our dedicated team members and volunteers—people just like you—recover fruits and vegetables that would have been wasted from backyard fruit trees, public orchards, farmers markets, and the downtown Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. We connect this abundance of nutritious food to people experiencing food insecurity, donating 100% of the produce we recover to hunger relief agencies across Southern California, and to tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION

ASSEMBLYMEMBER

WENDY CARRILLO

CONGRESSMEMBER BRAD SHERMAN

The work involved to providing families throughout Southern California with the support network they need to get through the toughest of times is one that cannot be accomplished without the dedication of committed leaders who are willing to join Labor Community Services as Ambassadors of Hope through their actions. This year, we come together to show our deep gratitude to 2 key leaders who have strengthened Labor Community Services and provided us with a foundation that will allow us to continue serving our families in need for years to come.

One of the first elected officials to step up and support Labor Community Services was Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo. Throughout the height of the Pandemic, Assemblymember Carrillo and her staff helped sponsor and support numerous food distributions in her district. Seeing the success that Labor Community Services had through its food distributions, community vaccination clinics and worker relief program, Assemblymember Carrillo championed a historic grant in the State Legislature that resulted in Labor Community Services being awarded $15 million dollars! This grant will allow us to further expand our services for those in need, along with develop programs providing assistance to our seniors and our veterans. At a time when actions truly speak louder than words, Assemblymember Carrillo’s actions cemented her as one of our greatest champions.

A key community in Southern California which was impacted severely by the COVID-19 Pandemic was the San Fernando Valley. A community of proud working class families, the Pandemic left many families struggling to make ends meet and creating a need for assistance that required a significant investment in resources. Congressmember Brad Sherman understood how great the need was and working closely with the Labor Community Services staff, has championed 2 key funding requests which will bring close to $1 million dollars to the San Fernando Valley, allowing Labor Community Services to solidify its Basic Needs Programs in the region and continue to serve Valley families in need. A leading voice for our families in Congress, we thank Congressmember Sherman for his leadership and his support of Labor Community Services!